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Package compiled for FAA managers

FAA via National Archives / The Black Vault · 122 pages · text from the file's own layer

This package was compiled by the FAA Alaskan Region Public Affairs Office in Anchorage and sent to FAA managers with a memo from Paul Steucke dated March 5, 1987. It gathers material on the November 17, 1986 sighting by the crew of Japan Air Lines flight 1628: a news release, pilot and controller transcripts, crew interviews and radar analysis. The FAA concluded that it could not confirm the event. It attributed the second radar target to a split, uncorrelated return from the JAL Boeing 747 and planned no further investigation.

  • p. 41 We ianored the liahts, thinking probably they were epecial missioned aircrafts or two f iahters becauee…
It was about seven or so minutes·since we began paying
attention to the lights, most unexpectedly two spaceships stopped
in front of our face, shooting off lights. The inside cockpit
shined brightly and I felt warm in the face. Perhaps firing of
jets was the result to kill inertia of their quick high speed
maneuver, but the ships appeared as if they were stopped in one
place in front of us. Then three to seven seconds later a fire
like from jet engines stopped and became a small circle of lights
as they began to fly in level flight at the same speed as we
were, showing numerous numbers of exhaust pipes. However, the
center area of the ship where below an engine might be was
invisible. The middle of the body of the ship sparked an
occasionally stream of lights, like a charcoal fire, from right
to left and from left to right. Its shape was a square, flying
500 feet to 1000 feet in front of us, very slightly higher in
altitude than us, its size was about the same size as the body of
a DC-8 jet, and with numerous exhaust pipes. The firing of the
exhaust jets varied, perhaps to maintain balance, some became
stronger than others and some became weaker than others, but
seemed controlled automatically.
We did not feel threatened or in danger because the
spaceship
[Personal statement concerning JAL Flight 1628 sighting of
unidentified air traffic, Nov. 17, 1986. Written by Capt.
Kenju Terauchi; translated by Sayoko Mimoto, F!J. Alaskan
Region, Airway Facilities Division. Received by FAA 1/2/87]

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Document, cited by the archive. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. 122 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.